Managing Illinois Direct Certifications

This article explains how to import a list of direct certified students from ISBE in order to update student lunch programs in SchoolInsight.

Direct Certification is the process of certifying students whose household receives government assistance (from SNAP, TANF, Foster Care, etc.) as eligible for free meal/milk benefits. Once certified, students will be eligible to receive these benefits for the entire school year.

The workflow for managing direct certification is as follows:

1. Submit a list of students to be certified by the state
2. Once qualifying students have been determined, download the list of eligible students from ISBE SIS
3. Import the list of eligible students into SchoolInsight
4. Repeat when needed

Determine Qualifying Students

A list of students can be uploaded at any time to ISBE SIS to determine their eligibility for Direct Certification. 

The file uploaded to the state must contain the following fields: Student First Name, Student Last Name, Gender (M or F), and Birth Date (MM/DD/YYYY). This can be created as a Classic Custom Report within SchoolInsight.

To create the report:

1. Go to Main > Import/Export > Saved Reports > Create > Classic Custom Report
2. Select the Data tab
3. Highlight a field in the Fields to Show section, and click the Remove button
4. Repeat until no fields are in the Fields to Show section
5. From the Available Fields list, select Student First Name
6. Click Add
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until all fields listed below have been added in this order:
   • Student First Name
   • Student Last Name
   • Gender
   • Birth Date
   • State ID Number
   • Home School
8. Select the Output tab
9. Select Comma Delimited (CSV)
10. Uncheck the Show Header Row box
11. Click Save As
12. Click Generate

Please note that manual editing of the file is required to change the Gender field from “Male” or “Female” to “M” or “F.” Additionally, note that the State ID Number and Home School fields are optional but are recommended for easier matching of the student file.

Below is an example of the needed file formatting.

Once you have created the file, it must then be uploaded to the IWAS.

To upload the file: 

1. Log in to IWAS
2. Select the Web-Based Illinois Nutrition System (WINS)
3. On the Sponsor Tasks tab, select Direct Certification

Import Student Direct Certifications in SchoolInsight

Once you have the Direct Certification file downloaded from ISBE, you can import it into SchoolInsight to update student lunch programs.

To import the file:

1. Go to District Main > Import/Export > Import Direct Certification
2. Click Choose File
3. Select the Direct Certification file containing eligible students
4. Click Preview
5. Click Import

As the year progresses, check for updates to Direct Certification in ISBE periodically. If there are any updates, download the updated file from ISBE and import it into SchoolInsight using the steps above.

More information about Direct Certification can be found in the following articles:

https://www.isbe.net/Documents/Direct-Certification-Quick-Reference-Guide.pdf

https://www.isbe.net/Documents/cacfp-DirectCert-Instructions.pdf

https://www.isbe.net/Documents/SNPb2s-2018-DirectCert-Certification.pdf